When Particles Won't Part - CUNY Graduate Center

Marcel den Dikken — When Particles Won’t Part
This tableau gives rise to the empirical generalisations in (60). 19
(60) a. when 2-Prt is non-affixal, V2 fails whether Asp-Prt is affixal or not (cf. (53.I/II))
b. when Asp-Prt is non-affixal and 2-Prt is affixal, V2 is quite unstable (cf. (53.III))
c. when both Asp-Prt and 2-Prt are affixal, V2 is generally successful (cf. (53.IV))
With the tableau and the generalisations in (60) in place, the search is now open for factors that seem to
determine the subcategorisation of double particle verbs. I will start by quickly discarding two possibilities that
come to mind, and which are indeed circulating in the literature on double particle constructions: stress, and
the question of whether a given double particle verb is a back-formation or not.
5.1 Stress is not a key factor
A well-known fact about Dutch and German particle verbs is that, in single particle cases, there is a strict
correlation between lack of stress on the particle and inseparability. I illustrate this here for the minimal pair
vóórkomen ‘happen, occur’ and voorkómen ‘prevent’ :
(6) a. dit soort uitwassen komen hier niet vóór (Dutch)
this sort excesses come here not PRT
‘these kinds of excesses don’ t occur here’
b. dit soort uitwassen voorkómt hij liever
this sort excesses PRT-comes he rather
‘these kinds of excesses, he would rather prevent’
(62) a. dit soort uitwassen lijken hier niet vóór te komen (Dutch)
this sort excesses seem here not PRT to come
‘these kinds of excesses don’ t seem to occur here’
b. dit soort uitwassen probeert hij te voorkómen
this sort excesses tries he to PRT-come
‘these kinds of excesses, he tries to prevent’
As the b–examples in (61) and (62) show, unstressed voor in voorkómen ‘prevent’ is not separated from
the verb: the complex verb fronts as a unit in V2–sentences, and the infinitival marker te docks to the left of
the particle. By contrast, the stressed particle vóór in the a–examples is stranded under V2 and is severed
from its verbal host by the infinitival marker. Stress vs lack of stress on the particle also governs the
distribution of the prefixal part of the past participial circumfix ge-V-d/t/en: unstressed inseparable particles
are incompatible with ge-, their presence preventing ge- from appearing: 20
(63) a. dit soort uitwassen zijn hier nooit vóórgekomen (Dutch)
this sort excesses are here never PRT-GE-come
b. dit soort uitwassen heeft hij altijd voorkómen
this sort excesses has he always PRT-come
For McIntyre (2001), stress is the whole story: the accentuation of the particle triggers separability.
But Zeller (2001:65–68) presents a good critique of McIntyre’ s stress-obsessed account. A particularly
striking point made by Zeller in this connection is that when an inseparable particle (which would, in neutral
contexts, be unstressed) is contrastively stressed, it must still be carried along under V2: stranding the particle
results in ungrammaticality despite the fact that it is heavily stressed. 21 Here are Zeller’ s German examples:
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